STYLE SHEET FOR THE JOURNAL OF FEMINIST STUDIES IN RELIGION
The notice to prospective contributors printed in each issue of the journal will acquaint you with the goals of the journal and the types of submissions we are seeking. Remember that material submitted to the JFSR should not be under consideration elsewhere. We will not accept writing that is in any way sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise discriminatory. In this category, we consider the phrase “Judeo-Christian” to be a Christian imperialistic term. Please use either “Christian” or “Jewish and Christian” as appropriate to the context.
NOTE about length: As you revise and prepare your manuscript for publication, please be sure that you continue to stay within our length guidelines (7,500 words including notes), and that you do not go over 8,000 words. In order to check this using Microsoft Word, go to “tools” and then “word count.” Be sure to click the box that says, “include footnotes and endnotes.”
Preparation of Manuscript
1. Use Times New Roman 12 point font and double spacing throughout the body of the paper. All footnotes should be in Times New Roman 10 point font and single spaced. Number all pages of the manuscript consecutively.
2. Spacing: Include only one space after each form of punctuation.
3. Margins: Use one inch margins on all sides.
4. Text formatting: Do not use boldface in the manuscript. For all titles of books and for adding emphasis in the text, use italics consistently.
5. Scriptural references appear either in running text or in parentheses within the text (in other words, not in a footnote, unless they pertain to other texts included in the footnote). If quoting from the Hebrew Bible or Christian (New) Testament, use standard abbreviations, include the chapter and verse(s) quoted, and add the translation used (for example, “Exod 6:2 NRSV”). Standard abbreviations can be found in The SBL Handbook of Style (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1999) or in The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
6. Images: If the article includes images, the author must obtain all needed permissions from the owner of the photo/images before submission. If fees are requested, the author is responsible for the negotiation and payment of those fees. Following #6 above, please save all images in separate high resolution files (jpeg, etc.). Do not include the images in the word document. Instead note see “Image 1” or “Image 2.” Please note that the image may not appear on the exact page where it is discussed in the article. Images will appear in color online and in black-and-white in print, unless the co-editors approve color printing for the issue.
7. Charts, tables, maps, etc., must be included on separate pages, with an indication in the text of where such material should be inserted. Charts or tables (if more than one) should be numbered consecutively and referred to in the text by number (“figure 7,” “table 3”), not as “the following table” or “the chart above.” Label all visual items other than tables “figures.”
8. Footnotes: All footnotes must follow the form prescribed in chapter 17 of CMS.
a. Acknowledgment notes (notes acknowledging grant support, research help, advice on the manuscript, etc.) should be unnumbered and placed before any numbered notes.
b. Use the automatic footnote function of your word-processing program so that if a note is added or deleted during editing, the remaining notes will be renumbered automatically. If using a program (such as EndNote) to generate footnotes, please remove all macros prior to submission.
c. Footnote reference numbers in the text should appear at the end of a paragraph or a sentence, if possible, or at least at the end of a clause. A footnote number should follow, not precede, a quotation. Do not enclose the footnote number in parentheses or place a period after it.
d. Footnotes amplifying the text should be considered carefully; frequent and/or lengthy discursive notes distract from the text’s flow. Please keep these notes brief and consider reorganizing to incorporate some or all of the material into the main text.
e. To avoid an excessive number of bibliographic footnotes, please gather citations into a single note at the end of a sentence or paragraph whenever possible. Unless individual footnotes are essential for clarity, multiple bibliographic citations in one sentence or paragraph can be covered in a single note at the end. (References in the footnote should appear in the order in which the works are mentioned in the text.) See CMS 16.37, for an example.
Sample Bibliographic Footnotes
1. Book:
Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Women, Men, and the Bible, rev. ed. (New York: Crossroad, 1988), 30.
2. Edited book:
Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, eds., Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), iii.
3. Journal article:
Hyun Kyung Chung, “Seeking the Religious Roots of Pluralism,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 34 (Summer 1997): 399–402.
4. Chapter in an edited volume:
Cornel West, “Black Theology and Human Identity,” in Black Faith and Public Talk: Critical Essays on James H. Cone’s “Black Theology and Black Power,” ed. Dwight N. Hopkins (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1999), 11–19.
5. Newspaper article:
Sam Dillon, “Women Tell of Priests Abusing Them as Girls,” New York Times, June 15, 2002.
6. Web site:
Call to Action, “An Editorial on Corpus Christi, Rochester,” April 1999, http://www.cta-usa.org/news4-99/aneditorial.html (accessed August 1, 2005).
7. Paper presented at a conference:
Jeanne Halgren Kilde, “Maternalism vs. Materialism in Mary Baker Eddy’s Mother Church of Christian Science: or, How Architecture and Gender Compromised Mind” (paper delivered at the annual meeting of the American Society of Church History, Chicago, IL, January 2000).
8. Subsequent references:
Mollenkott, Women, Men, and the Bible, 100.
Plaskow and Christ, Weaving the Visions, v.
Chung, “Seeking the Religious Roots,” 400.
West, “Black Theology and Human Identity,” 17.
Dillon, “Women Tell.”
Call to Action, “Editorial.”
Kilde, “Maternalism vs. Materialism.”
Please follow the capitalization and punctuation of these samples exactly; note the order of elements and the use of parentheses and commas. Examples for other types of sources may be found in the CMS, chapter 17. For unpublished papers, lectures, sermons, and the like, provide as much information as possible about the source, including author, date, location, and affiliated institution (if applicable).
Other questions regarding manuscript preparation and style may be referred to the submissions editor at the email address below:
Hilary McKane
[email protected]
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
Back to the JFSR Submissions Page.